{"id":12932,"date":"2026-03-02T06:25:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12932"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:53:01","slug":"three-out-of-four-aint-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12932","title":{"rendered":"Three Out of Four Ain\u2019t Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The boss counting how many games since we last lost to Chelsea but unfortunately he doesn\u2019t have enough fingers now. Courtesy of Arsenal.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday afternoon saw The Arsenal play Chelsea for the fourth time this season, probably one reason I am sick of the sight of them. They are Chelsea would be another reason I suppose. Over the years, I\u2019ve noticed that when teams play each other too often over a short period of time things generally turn a little tight and fractious. Both sides have grown to know each other\u2019s play and also too truly dislike each other\u2019s annoying habits. Fortunately, our annoying habit from Chelsea\u2019s point of view is not letting them win, a very handy habit that! And so it would prove to be again, as we pocketed the three points with a 2-1 win that featured goals and assists from across our defence. It wasn\u2019t pretty at times but we got the most important job of the day done – three points in the bag to mind the gap in the Premier League title race. Of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention another gap that has been given an extremely serious minding this season \u2013 a glass is raised to St Totteringham. Cheers and better luck whenever next time might be chaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Team<\/strong>
The Arsenal started with an unchanged XI from the previous week\u2019s hammering of the hapless, and exactly in line with our own GHF preview expectations (nod to Ned):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Hincapie
Eze Zubimendi Rice
Saka Gy\u00f6keres Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another start for Eberechi Eze then, and with a strong bench that featured a welcome return for Kai Havertz but lacked Martin \u00d8degaard and Benjamin White, both still out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Game<\/strong>
Declan Rice got the game going on what I must admit was a measured start as little of note happened in a fairly even first 15 minutes. They had a half chance that the Chelsea debutant Sarr miscued and the jittery Sanchez in goal was nearly caught on the ball by Viktor but that was about it until Eze attempted a long-range punt over a retreating Sanchez that was worth a try I suppose but I did see that a look left might have put Hincapie clean through on the left-wing. In fact, Sanchez dropped the ball over the line from Eze\u2019s shot and it should have been a corner, we didn\u2019t get that one but we did earn another a few minutes later which Saka delivered expertly to the back post\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal 1 Chelsea 0<\/strong>
Gabriel dominated the ineffective challenges of I think James and Pedro, nodded the ball across to Saliba who nodded it home off the luckless Sarr. Top delivery and execution. After that we largely controlled matters for the next 20 minutes really without taking advantage of some good situations around their penalty area and looked well worth the lead. The only real moment of alarm being a hospital ball back from Zubi to Raya, well Raya seemed calm, but I might have required medical treatment for sudden and unnecessary shock. Fortunately, a medicinal Caol Ila was at hand. Things then went downhill in the last couple of minutes of the first half, but just before that a tale of two penalty appeals, one for Viktor and one against Rice. I have rewatched carefully and objectively today and my considered opinion would be\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor \u2013 stone cold penalty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declan \u2013 nothing in it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there you have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, Raya had just done fantastically to scoop the ball over from the first of two Chelsea corners but could do nothing about the second as the ball skimmed off Hincapie\u2019s head and straight into the net. Basically, when you have a good delivery at speed bad things can happen. No blame to Hincapie from me \u2013 he had an excellent first-half I thought, and his interchanging with Leo wide left was really good but the result was 1-1 at half-time again.  Quite frustrating really, as clearly reflected in Saliba\u2019s face as he walked off I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week we had started the second half strongly and quickly put things right at the toilet bowl. Could we do that again? No, is the short answer. The first 15 minutes were fairly even in terms of possession, but with the better chances for them in truth. Leo went off to be replaced by Gabi and the game wandered along until an Arsenal free-kick was punched incompetently out for a corner by Sanchez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal 2 Chelsea 1<\/strong>
This time the delivery was from Declan and the header from Timber, we were just too strong for them in the scrum, Timber dominating Sarr this time, and the lead was restored. Sanchez complained, I think he was gesturing to the referee that it wasn\u2019t fair as he isn\u2019t good at catching the ball. On seeing the replay, I laughed and VAR ignored him.  After that, Neto did his bit for the cause by idiotically getting sent-off and then, presumably in embarrassment, whining pathetically. Oddly enough, the red card for Fofana last week was probably important as well, the unfortunate Sarr played ok but inadvertently helped us out on both goals. Did we see out the game well against 10 men? Not particularly, Eze could have wrapped it up around the 80th<\/sup> minute but shot too close to Sanchez and then we were too passive. Happily, Raya was on hand to did his job admirably and that was that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, in summary, we got the little things right a little more than they did and none of our players is as idiotic as Neto so we have 3 points and they none. Mikel, however, a far better summariser than I, put it this way:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A big win. I\u2019m very happy. For big periods, I think the team performed in an excellent way. I think the margin should have been bigger at half-time. The moment, especially, that we conceded, it was painful. But as well as the quality of Chelsea, the players and what they can deliver. After scoring the 2-1, we had another big chance with Ebz. And then the red card, and I said that we should have managed that situation better. We can talk about that tomorrow!<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to make of it all?<\/strong>
In all honesty I don\u2019t think we can read too much into that game and I am not going to try, Manchester City had ground out their win the day before, we needed to do the same and did. Of course, we can enjoy that it\u2019s three wins out of four against Chelsea \u2013 World Club Champions you\u2019re having a laugh \u2013 with the added bonus of quite probably getting into Rosenoir\u2019s head as his only three losses as manager of the classless crowd have come against The Arsenal. However, in a day of 2-1 wins in the Premier League this was the most important. Well done lads, put your feet up for the 10 minutes our crazy schedule allows, and then it\u2019s on to Brighton. Nine league games to go, plus those other little cup things.  Come on you Gunners!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Sunday afternoon saw The Arsenal play Chelsea for the fourth time this season, probably one reason I am sick of the sight of them. They are Chelsea would be another reason I suppose. Over the years, I\u2019ve noticed that when teams play each other too often over a short period of time things generally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12958,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12932\/revisions\/12958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}